The geological heritages in Xinjiang, China： Its features and protection

The geological heritage protection and its development at home and abroad reflect the progress in the aspect from the single protection to the coordination between protection and exploitation. The geopark established by UNESCO has closely combined the protection of geological heritages with the promotion of sustainable development of local economy, which has become the best way to protect geological heritages. The geological heritages in Xinjiang, China, are characterized by their large quantity, rich variety and high grade. The complicated geologic-geomorphic environment in Xinjiang contributes to the creation of various geological heritage types and their spatial distribution, and at the same time makes them under control. The main types of the geological heritages in Xinjiang are the geologic-geomorphic landscapes and the water landscapes. The spatial distribution can be divided into five geological heritage districts： Altay, Junggar, Tianshan, Tarim and Kunlun-Altun, among which Tianshan and Kunlun-Altun are most important. Based on the first systematic investigation of the geological heritages in Xinjiang, it is confirmed that the insufficient coordination between protection and exploitation is the primary cause for the backward situation in the geological heritage protection. To solve the problem, this paper proposes 6 major protection steps--from determining the protection types, the protection forms, the protection modes, the protection grades, the protection sequences to determining the＇ protection zones, brings forward the idea of optimal-selection which integrates geoparks with geological heritage protection areas and other protection areas as protection and exploitation reserve list for 209 well as 5 corresponding modes, and makes a important geological heritages in Xinjiang.

China Hammers Out Effective Steps to Protect Its Wetlands

The Chinese government will step up its efforts to stop the country’s wetlands from shrinking, said Ma Fu, Deputy Director of the State’s Forestry Administration, while announcing the newly drafted the Action Plan for National Wetlands Conservation on November 8th in Beijing.

Suitable retention and recovery technology of floor coal at ends of fully mechanized face with great mining heights

Gateways at faces of great mining heights are mostly driven along the roof of coal seams.For gateway height restrictions,a 1-3 m floor coal is retained,leaving a triangular floor coal at the face ends,causing a loss of coal.In order to improve coal recovery rates and to ensure efficiency of equipment at coal mining faces,we investigated suitable retention methods and recovery technology of floor coal at face ends.The upper floor coal can directly be recovered by a shearer with floor dinting.The lower floor coal is recovered by shearer with floor dinting after advanced floor dinting and retaining a step for protecting coal sides in a haulage gateway.Field practice shows that this method can improve the coal recovery rates at fully mechanized working faces with great mining heights.